I agree with everything said so far, and would also warn you from giving the advice you gave. You are not a lawyer, and not in a position to outline legal options. ‘Talk to a lawyer’ is the only right response, and that is what your boss did.
This. I was going to post just to make the point that these are not legal/medical/financial advice. “Get X advice” isn’t “giving X advice”.
So, one more vote for this.
Especially since some of what the OP said is not exactly accurate - sure , you can plead guilty without a lawyer but unless you’re talking about the equivalent of a traffic ticket, you’re still probably better off with a lawyer. Maybe a lawyer can get that felony with a likely one year sentence ( if the OP is even correct about the sentence) knocked down to a misdemeanor with an anger management program.
IMO, 4 weeks on the job and wondering if the described action warrants reporting - as opposed to asking the boss to explain - seems out of balance. Unless you are only 4 weeks in THIS job after a lengthy stretch for a different employer.
Why wouldn’t the FIRST response be to ask the boss to explain and educate you as a new employee? In my lengthy career, when my superiors have done things I thought sketchy, my main concern was to paper my own ass, rather than to report anyone - tho sometimes my CYA efforts would be tantamount to reporting. In my environment, I’ve found that reporting rarely (if ever) has any result other than the risk of getting your boss pissed at you.
This whole “see something, say something” buzz is such BS as so many times it falls back onto the “whistleblower” and they’re the one in trouble. As the “advice” offered by the superior isn’t radically different from what you offered (as you also appeared to be steering him towards the public defender if he was going to fight it) I’d suggest you stay quiet.
The line between being “wrong” and appearing “malicious” is usually in the eye of the beholder.
This as much or more “legal advice” as saying “hire a public defender”, IMO.
Only tangentially related, and offered as a hopefully interesting aside…
When I worked in financial services, our regular ethics training hammered home that suspicious and unethical behaviour should never be discussed with anyone other than the whistleblowing hotline - including line management. Doing so could be considered “tipping off” which had severe penalties.
In my job, I’m not supposed to give any specific advice to patent applicants on how they should amend an application to conform to the Patent Act and Rules, there’s an expectation that they’ll figure it out based on what defects I’ve identified in my reports.
But I am explicitly allowed to suggest they hire a patent agent to give them that advice. We even have a standard paragraph for our reports on this topic.
The OP is not describing formal legal advice. Legal advice is something a lawyer can provide. Informally it’s just anyone’s opinion. I don’t know if your boss is any way bound to avoid offering an opinion to a client on such a matter, but he isn’t impersonating a lawyer.
Imagine if the guy had gone straight to the police station from there and pled guilty. Later he says, “well I only pled guilty because that’s what HeyHomie told me!”
Next time and every time after, you need to begin and end that conversation with “lawyer up.”
Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for somebody is guide them towards the person who can best help them.
I have no idea how or why I bumped such an old thread. My apologies to the OP for harping on something that happened a year ago.